From the monetary and financial fields, regional integration in West Africa has extended to the trade sector, fiscal and macroeconomic policy coordination, and a range of sectoral policies. Regional integration can be further strengthened in all of these dimensions, whether by improving the security of financial transactions and the management of risks of financial instability, strengthening trade surveillance, improving the production of reliable macroeconomic information, and tariff policy developments, or the establishment of regional instruments to consolidate the common market and strengthen regional sectoral policies.
Regional integration in West Africa is an important vehicle for promoting growth and development for the states of the region.
In November 2011, at the request of the Ministers of Finance of the Franc Zone, the French Treasury Directorate General, in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD), launched a study on "Evaluating the expected gains from regional integration in African Franc Zone countries". FERDI, for whom this area is a priority, mobilized a large team of experts in fields as varied as trade integration, tax harmonization, and the institutional framework for integration, monetary and financial integration.
The foundation has since collaborated with WAEMU, CEMAC, the Banque de France, and the African Development Bank to produce research to support the strengthening of regional integration through Community policies.
FERDI actively participates in both theoretical and technical discussions designed to guide the action of the Community institutions.